Newest Michigan museum showcases racist artifacts

[dipsydoodle]

BIG RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) -- The objects displayed in Michigan's newest museum range from the ordinary, such as simple ashtrays and fishing lures, to the grotesque - a full-size replica of a lynching tree. But all are united by a common theme: They are steeped in racism so intense that it makes visitors cringe.

That's the idea behind the Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia, which says it has amassed the nation's largest public collection of artifacts spanning the segregation era, from Reconstruction until the civil rights movement, and beyond.

The museum in a gleaming new exhibit hall at Ferris State University "is all about teaching, not a shrine to racism," said David Pilgrim, the founder and curator who started building the collection as a teenager.

Pilgrim, who is black, makes no apologies for the provocative exhibits. The goal of the $1.3 million gallery, he explained, is "to get people to think deeply."

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_JIM_CROW_MUSEUM?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-04-19-03-45-10

[longship]

1. Gees! This is where I live!

My mailing address is Paris, MI. But I live in rural Newaygo county. Big Rapids is the closest big town. Unfortunately it is a bastion of right wing nuttery.

There are still many of us liberals around. We are fighting the battles.

Nice to see some others are helping us with the spade work, which is what we all must do.

[no_hypocrisy]

2. I think the display is relevant for the sake of documenting history.

A long time I was in Germany and shown to a basement in a house. I was then shown Nazi memorabilia that is illegal in that country. Daggers, medals, belt buckles, pistols, etc. Of course these items evoke a certain outrage and disgust. But I also valued my experience to understand history through its artifacts. That's what makes it tangible (literally), proves it really happened.